Warwickshire Structure Plan

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The saved Warwickshire Structure Plan policies were formally revoked by Statutory Order SI 2013/933. This was laid in Parliament on 24th April 2013 and came into effect on 20th May 2013. Therefore as of the 20th May 2013, the saved Warwickshire Structure Plan policies no longer form part of the statutory development plan for Warwickshire.

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The County Council was formerly responsible for the preparation of the Structure Plan. The plan provided a broad policy framework for the development of land across the County for the period up to 2011. The plan was adopted on 21st August 2001.

Warwickshire Structure Plan Saved Policies

The Warwickshire Structure Plan (1996-2011) was saved for a period of 3 years post-commencement of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 i.e. until September 2007.

The West Midlands Regional Assembly as Regional Planning Body requested that the Council made a case to the Secretary of State to extend the period of any of the policies within the saved Structure Plan.

The County Council provided its advice to the Regional Assembly as to which policies ought to be saved. This was considered by the Assembly’s Regional Planning Partnership at the meeting held on the 15th March 2007.

The provisions of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act state that the transition period during which a saved policy would continue to be saved would come to an end either at the end of three years, or when a new policy expressly replaces it, whichever comes first. However, the Secretary of State directed that in the case of the Warwickshire Structure Plan the first of the above conditions did not apply so the question of expiry did not apply to the structure plan policies.

The Localism Act received Royal assent on 15th November 2011. The Act provided the Secretary of State with power to make an Order to revoke the saved Structure Plan policies. Up to that point, the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) stated that in the case of development plan policies adopted before 2004 due weight should be given to the policies according to their degree of consistency with the NPPF framework i.e. the closer the policies in the plan to the policies in the Framework, the greater the weight that may be given.

As a result of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, which abolishes structure plans, this will be the last structure plan monitoring report. The act requires authorities to produce an Annual Monitoring Report which will review progress of the emerging Local Development Documents against the Minerals and Waste Development Scheme and assess the extent to which policies in the Local Development Documents are being successfully implemented.